EVALUATION OF A COMPUTER COURSE FOR CHILDREN

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate children’s learning outcomes after a face-to-face computer course. The study population was composed by 26 children of both genders, aged between 5 and 7 years old, from the children’s day care - CCI -“Centro de Convivência Infantil” in Portuguese, that belongs to UNESP Araraquara Campus and from Araraquara Municipal educational network CERS – “Centros de Educação e Recreação” in Portuguese. The one hour classes were completely practical, fortnightly. For children from CCI, classes were held in the Didactic Information Laboratory at Araraquara School of Dentistry – UNESP (LDI) and for those from CERs, at public schools with availability of computers that supported the systems used. Resources selected for teaching were educational games from Divertire, “Coelho Sabido” (clever bunny) line – Maternal and “Estrela Cintilante” (sparkling star) and Editora Vale das Letras – “Festa dos Dentinhos (party held for little teeth). As the course proceeded, children were visited by some of the characters from the educational games. Evaluation of the children’s learning outcomes regarding computer use was practical and was both before and after the course. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Participants’ performance average was calculated per point and 95% (IC95%) interval of confidence in the beginning and in the end of the course. Comparison between averages was performed by using the paired Student’s-t test. The level of significance adopted was 5%. It was observed that the children’s computer skills were significantly better after the course (Student’s-t Test: -8.964, p<0.001). It was concluded that the evaluated course improved the children’s learning outcomes concerning computer use.